Unearthing the Sociology of Urban Gardening: The Social and Political Life of the German “Schrebergarten”

As environmental awareness grows and global supply chains become increasingly fragile, urban gardening has seen a surge in public demand. While allotments as a horticultural source of individual well-being have been widely studied in social psychology, their significance for societal cohesion has not yet been sociologically theorized and empirically investigated. Focusing on Germany, a country with a long tradition of urban allotments commonly known as “Schrebergarten,” we conceptualize urban gardens as multifaceted social units characterized by both material and associational dynamics. Since becoming institutionalized by 19th-century conservative social reformers, they have been conceived as loci of family retreat, depoliticization in quasi-homeownership, private insurance against food price inflation, and embourgeoisement of the working classes. Drawing on unique panel data (1990-2013), we challenge the petty bourgeois image of the Schrebergarten, showing that it brings together heterogeneous strata of educated left-wing citizens with ecological concerns, particularly in urban areas and East Germany, with no evidence of political embourgeoisement. If anything, the Schrebergarten increases secular social and political engagement beyond family life, facilitating social integration, especially for foreign citizens. Overall, the Schrebergarten disappoints most of the socio-political expectations classically ascribed to it and should rather be considered as a site of socialization and politicization.